In "The Terror of Reconstruction," Lew Rockwell highlights the dangers of governments seeking to suppress their political opponents by an assault on citizens' liberties.
Another tactic, described by Charles Adams in his book Human Events, was to force free black people to vote in favor of the candidate preferred by the government.
In his treatise The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Jefferson Davis issues "a warning to the people against the dangers by which their liberties are beset." It is a warning to be vigilant in recognizing and opposing threats to liberty even when-or especially when-such threats emanate from the state.
Davis details how the victorious federal government took the opportunity to occupy the South, sending in the army to enforce the universal denial of unalienable personal rights, the destruction of civil institutions, the disregard of laws, and the cruel and ignominious treatment, inflicted by the authority of the Government of the United States upon individuals in every part of the Southern country.
Emancipation orders declared that "It is the duty of the army to maintain the freedom" of liberated slaves, followed by government orders "Defining and regulating the relations of freedmen and whites." Although not explicitly stated, the implication of such government edicts was that people in the South could not be expected to manage by themselves to live in peace without the federal authorities present to dictate every aspect of their lives.
Adams highlights the resentment and racial hostility fomented by the federal government pitting black against white in the occupied South: The game plan of the Yankees was to use the ex-slaves to take over Southern society and wealth.
The disastrous outcome of the federal government's reconstruction plans in the aftermath of the War for Southern Independence should serve as a warning against such cynical attempts to appeal to voters based on their racial identity.
No comments:
Post a Comment